SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM): seeing improvement with a UV laser

Abstract

The adaptive module of the 4.1-m SOAR telescope, SAM, corrects ground-layer turbulence using a UV laser guide star. It has been commissioned in 2013 and it is in regular science operation since 2014. SAM works with the CCD imager covering a 3' field or with the speckle camera. It operates routinely and stably, delivering resolution in the I band equal to the free-atmosphere seeing. This paper describes the SAM system as a whole, providing essential reference for its users and technical information of interest to instrumentalists. Operation of the instrument, its performance, and science projects done with SAM so far are reviewed.

Accepted for publication in PASP. 14 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Performance Modeling of a Wide Field Ground Layer Adaptive Optics System
• Isolated ellipticals and their globular cluster systems III. NGC 2271, NGC 2865, NGC 3962, NGC 4240 and IC 4889
• Imaging survey of subsystems in secondary components to nearby southern dwarfs

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• The Solar Neighborhood LII: M Dwarf Twin Binaries -- Presumed Identical Twins Appear Fraternal in Variability, Rotation, H$\alpha$, and X-rays
• The Solar Neighborhood. LV. M Dwarf Twin Binaries -- One in Five Twin Sibling Pairs Are Mismatched in Activity and/or Rotation